Christian Brothers amalgamate Oceania provinces

Published: 26 March 2007

The Christian Brothers have amalgamated their Australian, Papua New
Guinea and New Zealand provinces into the new province of Oceania,
which includes a new structure to manage the congregation's Australian
schools.

To
head the new Oceania province, the Congregation Leader of the Christian
Brothers in Rome has appointed as Province Leader, Br Vince Duggan, a
Christian Brothers statement announces.

According to the
statement, the new structure is intended to achieve more efficient
administration and to make it easier to expand the work of the
Christian Brothers.

As well as the new province headquarters in
Brisbane, there will be regional offices in other major cities in
Australia as well as in New Zealand and PNG.

In Australia, PNG
and New Zealand, the Christian Brothers have been known principally for
their work in schools but in more recent decades they have also
expanded their work in adult education, social justice activities with
refugees, asylum seekers, indigenous people and disadvantaged youth.

To
assist Br Duggan in his role, a leadership team consisting of Brs Peter
Dowling, Peter Harney, Joe Lauren, Julian McDonald, Dean McGlaughlin
and Paul Robertson has also been appointed.

Br Vince said
Christian Brothers throughout the region had sought a new structure
which affirmed an educational tradition which could grow separately
while marshalling resources in an effective way to allow for expansion
of work in social justice and other areas.

"This social justice
focus is on the poor and marginalised, with special emphasis on care of
the young, and the Christian Brothers increasingly work collaboratively
with other people in the Edmund Rice network to meet the demand for
this type of service," Br Vince said.

A feature of the new
organisational structure is separate governance and administration of
the Christian Brothers' schools, under the banner of Edmund Rice
Education Australia, with leadership of the schools largely of lay
people.

The Christian Brothers in Oceania have over 60 separate ministries and among examples of this work.

The new structure will come into operation on 1 October.

The Christian Brothers began in Ireland in 1802, with the Blessed Edmund Rice as founder.

There
have been Christian Brothers in Australia since 1842, for three years
initially and continuously since 1868, in New Zealand since 1876 and in
Papua New Guineas since
1950.

A similar restructuring process
is also underway in Europe with the Rome-based Congregational
Leadership Team and provinces that cover Ireland and England combining
to form a single European province.